Is this a bridge too far for people who want to take both the Bible and rational thinking seriously?
“Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die’” (Gen 3:4). A talking snake? Is this a Disney plot? I live in a university town, and some of my neighbors say they can’t take the Bible seriously if it means they must believe in having chats with reptiles. Well, let me tell you this. When I was a kid, my dad had a talking car! Really! It said things like, “The door is ajar.” But even as a child, I wasn’t fooled. I didn’t think the car had somehow evolved a human brain, vocal cords, and all the other equipment needed to speak, then snuck off to night school to learn English. I knew that a higher intelligence, a real person, was behind this, not just nuts and bolts. In the same way, when I heard the story about Balaam having an argument with his donkey, I wasn’t surprised that God could make it seem that the donkey had given up braying for Aramaic. So even as a child I knew someone was using the snake in that story in Genesis as a cover. And when I heard what it was saying, I had a REALLY BIG clue who was actually speaking. No one likes to doubt, distort, and deny the Word of God like the devil. He did all three in the space of four verses. But I have a question for my intelligent friends. I don’t have a problem with this talking snake, but I DO with a whole SPECIES of creatures, homo sapiens by name, randomly evolving the miracles of abstract thought and intelligent speech. That takes more blind faith than I can muster. Please understand. God doesn’t ask you to believe what you can’t believe, but He will hold you accountable for what you won’t believe. Step into the truth you can believe, and God will give you more truth. As Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
